Mo Jassim has just announced that he will be stepping down from his role as ADCC head organizer, but top competitor and fellow promoter Craig Jones has started hinting that he was fired instead. Jassim served as the head organizer for 5 years in total, and he was the head organizer for one of the ADCC Trials in North America prior to that. After his first stint as head organizer in 2019, he became the first person to ever do the job twice when he returned at ADCC 2022. Then it was announced that he would return to the role again in 2024, and he set a benchmark that’s unlikely to be passed any time soon.
Jassim took the promotion to new heights throughout his tenure as head organizer and he was clear about his lofty goals for the sport when we interviewed him before. Although he managed to make some of them a reality, there’s undoubtedly much more work to be done in the future. He already presided over the addition of a third women’s weight class as an example, but there’s definitely room for even more than that. The women’s side of ADCC has undergone a lot of changes during his time, including the reintroduction of the female absolute division. These changes have been met with a great fan response, but it remains to be seen whether the next head organizer will continue working on more.
Although some of the work that Jassim did has been appreciated by the fans and competitors alike, there was a pretty big shadow cast over ADCC 2024. What should have been the biggest no gi grappling event in the history of the sport actually fell a little flat in the end, as several competitors left the tournament. Athletes always withdraw every year due to injuries or visa issues of course, but this year was much different. Instead of the regular issues ADCC face, Mo Jassim was dealing with a fierce rivalry with the Craig Jones Invitational and a more personal battle with CJI’s founder.
It seems like that battle might have taken a bit of a toll on Jassim one way or another, as he announced on Instagram that he would not be reprising his role for ADCC 2026:
Obviously Craig Jones and Mo Jassim have had plenty of words back and forth on social media over the past year as the rivalry between ADCC and the Craig Jones Invitational took off. It’s not surprising then that Jones would decide to comment on the news that Jassim was stepping down as organizer, and one of the first things he said was ‘you can’t fire me, I quit’. The implication was clearly that Jassim was pushed out rather than leaving of his own accord. Jones didn’t waste any time in doubling down on that either, as he quickly shared the following video to his official Instagram account:
